


Didn't See That Coming

by Dylangasmsforusall (En_Kelleher)



Category: Leverage
Genre: Accidental kisses lead to a massive internal panic, Eliot POV, F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:46:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24957067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/En_Kelleher/pseuds/Dylangasmsforusall
Summary: Gettin' together ain't easy, and Eliot's not sure he really deserves it, but Parker and Hardison try to explain to him that it's okay and he is worthy.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 18
Kudos: 150





	Didn't See That Coming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dylinski](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dylinski/gifts).



> A prompt for my lovely [friend](http://Dylinski.tumblr.com) who is in need of a little love.
> 
> Second time writing these loves, so leave me some love and come visit me on [Tumblr](http://Dylangasmsforysall.tumblr.com)

It first started happening in small increments. Little touches and things that Eliot didn’t think too much about. Wouldn’t let himself think too much about it. If he let himself think about it too much, then he’d hope, and Eliot wasn’t much on hoping. He was good at the tangible. He could put his fists to it and fight his way out of it. But the hoping? That wasn’t necessarily his strong suit.

However, after a long, exhausting job, Eliot drove Parker and Hardison to their apartment. They started living together a little while ago, and Eliot was happy for them, even if he held himself further away on principle. He didn’t want to get in the way of their relationship, no matter how much he lo- cared for them. Cared for them, that’s all it was. That’s all he’d allow it to be- protective, familial, friendly caring.

So he drove them home, and Parker was asleep on his shoulder, one hand fisted in the side of his shirt. Hardison wasn’t much better off, leaning against the window and struggling to keep his eyes open. Eliot sighed as he parked his truck. 

“We’re here.” He said softly, gently lifting his shoulder to shake Parker awake.

She made a disgruntled noise, squeezing his shirt a little in her grasp.

“Carry me,” She mumbled, not even bothering to open her eyes.

Eliot sighed again, acting as put out as he could so that he didn’t enjoy the feeling of her cheek on his shoulder.

“Fine, whatever.” 

He pulled the keys from the ignition and then opened his door to gently ease out of the truck. As Parker canted towards him with another sleepy noise, Eliot tucked his hands under her arms to pull her to the edge of the seat before repositioning and lifting her from the truck.

God, was she always this small? She felt absolutely tiny in his arms as he nudged the door closed with his hip and walked around to the passenger side where Hardison was blearily, yet somehow still gracefully, falling from the passenger side. 

“Ya’ll are hopeless,” Eliot told them both as Hardison closed the door, shoulder his and Parker’s go-bags and then used Eliot’s shoulder as a stabilizing lead into the building.

Eliot wasn’t sure how these two usually got home, or why they were so extremely exhausted that they couldn’t function without him actually tucking them into bed, but Eliot was their protector, and if that meant carrying Parker and leading Hardison into their apartment, then so be it. If it also meant that he had to guide them through sleepy-or actually asleep- motions to change into pajamas for bed before tucking them in, then Eliot would tell no one that that was part of his job description.

“Christ,” He groaned as he had to maneuver Parker’s dead weight into sleep clothes. “You’re tinier than a kitten but you’re heavy- Parker, help me out here.”

“Meh,” Parker mumbled, not helping at all- the little shit. 

Speaking of little shits, Eliot tossed a dark glare at Hardison as he chuckled at Parker’s antics. He looked stupid as hell caught in his own shirt with jerky sleepy motions, but Eliot felt the blossom of warmth flush through his chest.

“Dammit, Hardison.” Eliot growled, finally getting Parker positioned under the blankets in the bed before he moved over to Hardison and pulled him free of his shirt. “Just- Christ- Just get into the bed. You don’t need the shirt!”

He’d managed to change his pants, so that was a little less stress on Eliot’s nerves. He pushed Hardison towards the bed, ignoring his laugh as he flopped down next to Parker with a sleep drunk little chuckle.

“Go to sleep,” Eliot moved the blankets over Hardison as well, turning to leave when he felt a grip around his fingers.

“You shouldn’t drive so tired. We can nap together.” 

“Wh-” Eliot felt himself being tugged down onto the bed as well, and was wholly glad that he was still wearing all of his clothes because knowing that Hardison was only wearing pants might have made his heart trip a beat.

“Sleep,” Parker’s voice joined in, a sleepy warm hum as the bed moved with her flopping half on top of Hardison to move her fingers back over to grip Eliot’s shirt.

Well shit.

+++

After the pulled-in-to-sleep-next-to-them incident, Eliot both stayed away and also stayed around. He was physically there, but mentally drew back so that he wouldn’t allow himself to feel things for his two best friends.

And he had to keep reminding himself that that was the case. They were best friends. Those two were a couple, and he was their best friend. The third wheel, the not-a-part-of-the-equation third wheel. They weren’t all the same unit- not like they used to be. There were the pats on the shoulder, the bro hugs, the side hugs, the using Eliot like a jungle gym, and that was strictly friendly.

Or at least that’s what Eliot thought before The Incident. This wasn’t at all like the ‘hey, let’s have a nap’ incident,and more of a world tilting, panic inducing, brain-melter. 

Eliot had just woken up at Their Apartment after ending a job and recovering from the big fight that he’d had to win for them all to get away. He was bruised and sore, and currently holding an ice pack to his ribcage as he made himself a cup of coffee. He listened as Hardison and Parker were talking about meeting up at the brew pub later.

Eliot turned with his cup of coffee, taking a sip and lowering it as his eyes caught the two of them sharing a quick kiss goodbye. He was a little shocked when Hardison then brushed past him while also pressing a quick kiss goodbye to Eliot’s own mouth before walking out of the door. 

Eliot’s brain may have malfunctioned for a good 3 seconds because when he was coming back to himself, Parker was also brushing past him with a smooth hand to his cheek, thumb ghosting over his bottom lip, before exiting the apartment. That he didn’t even live in.

Eliot somehow managed not to drop his coffee cup, setting it gingerly down on the counter before he could even process what the fuck just happened, eyes trained on the door that was now closed as if his world hadn’t just been upturned and set on fire.

+++

The whole day Eliot was in a tizzy. And he doesn’t admit that lightly- He doesn’t _do_ tizzies! He’s a godamn hitter! He didn’t get flustered and drop things anytime he thought of his best friends- how they so nonchalantly _kissed_ him and touched him goodbye! He didn’t get flustered at all, for fuck’s sake! He was a former hitman! A killer, he could remain calm in torture settings and-- fuck! And one little kiss and a brush of a hand has him dropping things all day?

When he finally arrived at the brew pub, he was in a mood. He ignored the workers that he moved past and went straight into the kitchen in order to wield a knife and chop things into oblivion. He had work to do- and Hardison had to go and buy a brew pub! He had to deal with the menu and create new exciting things for the patrons and he did not have _time_ to think about his best friends lips! Godammit.

Eliot was a little ashamed to admit that he hid in the kitchen all day, keeping busy with making food for the patrons. Parker and Hardison moved in and out of the kitchen for a good portion of the morning, but were acting so strange that Eliot just didn’t make eye contact, and actually fucking cut himself with his knife.

He didn’t do that!

+++

Later on that night, after going back to his own living space, Eliot had just sat down on his couch with a beer when his front door burst open and two sets of feet barged in. He jumped up off of the couch and spun around, letting the beer fly from his hand towards the intruders before he even thought about it.

The startled shriek that Hardison let out as the bottle smashed into the wall by his head would have been funny if Eliot didn’t immediately feel a shit ton at once. Shame for almost smashing a bottle into Hardison’s face, guilt for almost hurting someone he’d vowed to protect with his life, panic at seeing them in his home, and even a slight thrill of seeing them in his home.

“What the he-” Hardison started, but Parker interrupted with a, “What are you doing!!?”

“What am I- You can’t just barge into someone’s house like that, I coulda killed you!” Eliot pointed a finger down at the floor between them, “that’s what I do! You don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Hardison held up his hands before he placed them on Parker’s shoulders and moved them both further into the room, closer to Eliot.

Despite his level of comfort around the two of them, Eliot took a step back as they moved closer. He was still reeling from this morning, and confused, and,well, all in a tizzy.

“Hey, hey,” Hardison put on the soft voice he usually kept for speaking to Parker when she was losing herself a little bit. “So..this morning-”

“I-I don’t want to talk about this morning,” Eliot stuttered, clearing his throat and snapping out of his messed up thoughts and feelings to quickly move around the couch and over to the kitchen to grab another beer.

“I’m sorry,” Hardison rushed out, moving a hand to rub at his face, “it was an accident- I wasn’t thinking. It just happened.”

Eliot whirled around with a beer in hand, anger written across his face, “and you think that makes it okay?”

“Wh-”

“You can’t just- Ya’ll are the couple here! You can’t just do that- this isn’t- we’re not-” Eliot shook his head and popped the cap off of his beer, taking an angry swig from the bottle.

“Eliot-” Parker started and then sighed, looking at Hardison for help.

“It… It wasn’t okay- We get that, but-” Hardison started and Eliot shook his head again, setting the bottle on the island and leaning his hands on the counter next to it. “Eliot, look, what happened was an accident, but it wasn’t..not..wanted.” He said, a little uncertain.

“We talked about it,” Parker added on, looking between the two men in the room before letting her eyes stay on Eliot for his reaction, “this morning after we got to the brew pub. It may have been something that we didn’t mean to happen, yet, but it wasn’t something that we didn’t want to happen.”

“Didn’t want to happen? What are you talking about? You can’t- relationships don’t-” Eliot stammered, feeling a slight flush prickle at his cheeks.

God he hated this. 

So maybe, sometimes he had some feelings that went a little unchecked when it came to the two of them. But they were the couple here! Eliot wasn’t a part of that. He wasn’t allowed to be a part of that. And maybe sometimes he woke up from dreams that featured all of them and he momentarily forgot that he _couldn’t have that_ before he realized and got back to reality.

“Why not?” Parker asked, a little bit of defensive anger slipping into her voice.

Eliot stopped moving and looked at her. He could feel the heat still in his cheeks and hoped like hell that he wasn’t as flushed as he felt. “What?”

“Why can’t a relationship be like that? I’ve been reading and there’s this thing-”

“I don’t want to know what you’ve been reading, Parker, that’s just not how things work! It’s- It’d have to be- It’d just- There’s no way for that to work.” It couldn’t. There’s no way that it could work out for Eliot to have what he wanted, for them all to want each other as equally and as balanced as some of those dreams that he will never admit to having. “You can’t be with two people at once. That’s not how it works.”

“That’s not strictly true, though,” Hardison added in, a hand loosely wrapped around Parker’s. “There are a wide range of things and feelings on the spectrum, man, and Parker’s right. She’s shown me some of the stuff she was reading-”

Eliot scoffed a little bit, downing half of his beer in one go. There’s no way, he couldn’t- they couldn’t. “We couldn’t-”

“It’s normal to be scared or nervous when figuring things out, but Eliot, we can do this! We want to do this. That kiss this morning, it felt so natural to do it that it just happened. Everything between the three of us has been natural.-”

“Stop! I can’t- We can’t- This isn’t-”

Eliot almost had the urge to escape his own home, this conversation, this..hope for something more. He couldn’t allow himself to feel that, because hoping led to other things that just _crushed_ when they were gone. And they would be gone, sometime, when his two best friends, the most important people in the world eventually realized they didn’t want him and left. Eliot wasn’t sure if he would survive that.

So keeping things how they were was his only option. Because with that option, he could keep them close to him and protect them until his dying breath like he’d vowed to himself, like he’d promised Sophie.

Parker released Hardison’s hand and moved towards Eliot, moving up into his space before he could do much more than remove himself from his internal struggle. She sidled up right by his side and wrapped her fingers around his wrist in a grounding motion.

“I understand that this is a lot.” She told him, her voice soft, dark blue eyes staring up at him. “I understand the urge to run. And yes, you look like you want to bolt right out of that door.”

Hardison came up behind her, moving closer as well, “Please don’t run.” He mumbled, leaning a bit into Parker where he stood.

Eliot let out a breath, listening to what the two of them had to say.

“If you ran out of that door right now, I don’t know what we’d do, Eliot.” Parker told him, her eyebrows furrowed in a frown. “I feel sick- So anxious and sick and like my heart is trying to beat its way out of my chest.”

Eliot sucked in a small breath as she squeezed his wrist, “Parker-”

“No, please listen.” She interrupted him, “ I- We love you. We know you love us, too.”

“Please don’t,” Eliot closed his eyes at the pressure behind his lids. He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I’m not what you want. Either of you. It.. It wouldn’t end badly, Parker, and you’ve asked questions before and I asked you not to ask them because then I’d have to answer-”

“I’m asking now,” she said immediately, sliding her hand up his forearm from his wrist and gripping at his bicep tightly. “I’m asking now. Tell me why this can’t happen.”

“I’m not- I don’t-” Eliot took a steadying breath before he opened his eyes and looked at Parker, then Hardison. “I don’t think-”

“You don’t think you’re capable of loving us?” Hardison asked, hedging closer to what Eliot was thinking than he was strictly comfortable with. Fuck.

“I’m very much a bad guy,” Eliot replied, looking down at his beer bottle with a set jaw. “I’ve done things that would keep you up at night for a hundred years, and then you still wouldn’t be able to unsee them.”

Eliot trailed off for a moment, and Hardison shrugged lightly, “We’re all bad guys, man, we’re cons. We steal and cheat and ruin peoples lives on a daily basis-”

“I’m a monster,” Eliot cut in, his voice hard, gruff. They didn’t get it. They’d never understand what Eliot was talking about because he refused to talk about it. He’d been cold, and merciless, with blood on his hands; and he’d gotten so lost in it at one point that it even scared him. He’d explicitly asked Parker never to ask him what he’d done because then he’d have to tell her, and he never wanted to see the look in her eyes change when she looked at him. 

“Please don’t say that about yourself. Please don’t believe that. You’re so much more than that. You’re so…” Parker trailed off, her hand lifting from his bicep to grip at the nape of his neck, pulling his head closer to her face. “You’re so strong, and caring, and thoughtful, and amazing. And neither of us would be here today if it weren’t for you, Eliot. We wouldn’t be alive right now. None of us would. Not me, not Hardison, not Sophie or Nate or any of the people that we’ve helped along the way.”

“That’s not-”

“No, listen to me.” Her voice grew stern as she squeezed the back of his neck harder, made him look at her. “You may be a con artist, but you are a hero, Eliot. My hero, Hardison’s hero. You _have_ to listen to me and _believe_ that you’re worthy of love.”

“You love so deeply,” Hardison added in, stepping closer to Parker’s back and moving her closer to Eliot in turn. “We’ve seen it. We’ve experienced it. You don’t like to show it, but it’s there, and we see it. We see _you_.”

Eliot couldn’t stop his breath from shaking as he took it in and let it out slowly. He couldn’t for the life of him see why they were even interested in him. He was just the hitter. The muscle. The fists, and bruises, and blood, and violence. But looking at the two of them, so whole-heartedly telling him that they saw him, that they wanted him, Eliot felt something in him shift and click into place.

He closed his eyes again, bowing his head slightly as he attempted to get a little control over himself in that moment. They _really_ wanted him. They _loved_ him? Fuck it was too much, too hard to believe. 

He felt Parker’s bangs brush against his forehead as she pressed her forehead to his lightly, still keeping her grip on the back of his neck, holding him steady, holding him in place. Eliot felt completely shattered, yet held together by her fingers on his skin.

“I don’t understand why,” Eliot mumbled, shaking his head a little bit.

Hardison’s hand joined Parker’s on the back of his neck, cupping the opposite side. “You don’t have to. Not yet. You just gotta believe us, and want to do this as much as we want to do this.”

“I do,” Eliot sighed out, giving in. “I really do. I’ve dreamt about it, but never thought it could ever be a thing-” Eliot cut off when Parker’s forehead rolled against his as she lifted her chin and brushed her lips against his lightly.

“Shh, S’okay. We’re gonna be okay. We’ll make it work, okay?” Her lips brushed his as she spoke and she stepped just a bit closer to him than she was, forcing him to move his arm so that she could step into the space between him and the counter. “Just...say this is okay…” She urged, looking up into his eyes as her fingers trailed through the hair behind his ear lightly.

Eliot watched her, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he thought about it. Really thought about it. The challenges that this would bring up, the dangers that could arise, the outcome of it not working out destroying them all, the fucking _joy_ that inched its way into his chest and the prospect of it _working_.

“Fuck,” he sighed out, closing his eyes again. He nodded just slightly, and he felt Hardison’s hand tighten on his neck, pulling him in as he wrapped his arms around him and Parker.

Eliot had hugged the two of them before, of course, even in tandem, but not like this. This felt like it was piecing together the shards that had shattered within him earlier, and Eliot felt whole for the first time in many years. He felt lips on either side of his head as he finally moved to wrap his arms around the two of them as well, everything sort of slotting into place.

“It’s not..” He started and then cleared his throat a little, “it’s not going to be easy.”

“Life isn’t easy man, but we can make it easier for each other.” Hardison told him, giving him and Parker a little squeeze before he raked a hand through Eliot’s hair smoothly.

+++

After exhausting themselves with emotional shit, and, fuck, getting together? Jesus, Eliot wasn’t sure how this was his life. But to be honest, his life had been a bit of a mad house since the Nigerian Job when the team had all worked together for the first time. If he was being completely true and honest with himself, he’d known then that he belonged with the two of them. Anyway, after exhausting themselves, Eliot was the one to instigate the sleeping.

He only had a queen bed, which was fine for himself, but the three of them squeezing into it made him realize that he would probably be bed shopping soon if the three of them stayed the night at his place often. Not that he was uncomfortable with Parker and Hardison on either side of him- Okay, actually, he was pretty uncomfortable being in the middle, so after a little while he climbed over Parker to put himself next to the side of the bed facing the door.

He felt something settle in his bones when he placed himself between them and the possible entrance for intruders, knowing that he’d be able to wake and protect them if he needed to.

“You feel better now?” Parker asked, a knowing little tilt in her voice.

“You little shi-”

“Shhh, it’s sleep time.” Hardison lifted up and over Parker to press a quieting kiss to Eliot’s protesting lips before dropping an identical one to Parker’s and flopping back down onto the pillow he shared with Parker.

“I-” Eliot began, only to be silenced once again by Parker pulling the same trick and shutting him up with a kiss. She let hers linger before she moved her hands and adjusted him where he was on his back and she was draped along his chest. Hardison then moved to wrap himself around her back and they both let out pleased little sighs that had Eliot’s muscles unclenching into relaxation.

Fine, they win. Sleeping would be nice; besides, the last time they’d all shared a bed had been the best sleep that he’d ever had. Maybe he’d start getting some decent rest with the two of them grounding him to the bed.

He smiled a little as he tipped his head and brushed his lips to Parker’s hair, his fingers idly tracing at Hardison’s elbow where his arm was draped over Parker and Eliot both.

Yeah, he could live with that.


End file.
